Feature: Friends
- Joe and Rose Tanous were friends of my parents; through
couples socializing, their children (older than I) became my
friends.
- I remember many really exciting times in the Tanous home
in Malmaison, outside Paris. They had a fabulous estate.
Joe had been known as the "bubble gum" king of Europe--sometimes I
heard him referred to as the "Coca Cola" king of Europe. Whatever
he was he was a barrel of laughs and knew how to entertain his guests
royally.
- I remember Joe at the piano playing German songs and
singing in German. Then, he yelled at me in German to leave the
room, just to see if I understood what was going on. I started to
leave and he called me back and was very friendly. He seemed
always to be playing jokes on people. My mother seemed to really
have lots of fun there.
- The food was sensational. I remember the huge
dining room and table along with servants bringing in wild game, wild
rice, and other exotic things I had never had before. I loved the
food there.
- Often I sat in the living room, on the floor, and played
"concentration" solitaire and took on all comers. Although I was
the youngest, I could beat everyone.
- Of the four (?) Tanous children, I felt closest to
Evelyn; we had nice times playing in her large bedroom upstairs.
Mostly, she talked about school (American School).
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MEMORIES
Living in Paris, and in
particular living with a French family, again opened many varied
and broad opportunities, especially in regard to the remarkable set of
Americans who lived and worked in Paris during this post-WWII time
period.
- Madame Bardel, Claude and Francoise, my best friends in
Paris. We
lived en pension with them in one sub-apartment on the Boulevard
Malesherbes. We ate dinner with them, en famille, most
evenings. The
meals were traditional classical French cuisine; many courses, wine,
and water to drink. Children drank wine mixed with water in
addition
to water.
- Jacques, the British (bilingual in French and English)
student
who also rented a sub-apartment from Madame Bardel. He ate dinner
with
us only occasionally.
- Sol and Rhoda Hirsch. My mother met Rhoda and Sol at
the American Embassy.
- Joe and Rose Tanous and their children, Peter,
Evelyn,... The
children went to the American School; they were all older than I
was.
My mother met Rose at the American Embassy.
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